Partnerships for sustainable development: measuring transformative potential through leverage points

Multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs) play a key role in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), offering collaborative mechanisms to address interconnected global challenges. Despite the increasing number of MSPs, their transformative potential remains underexplored. Taking a systems thinking approach, the leverage points theoretical framework by Donella Meadows (1999) is operationalized and applied to assess the transformative potential of a sample of 35 MSPs working on prominent SDG nexuses involving SDGs 4, 13, 14, and 15. Findings indicate that while partnerships target multiple intervention points within systems, they often neglect the deepest leverage points that could lead to a more profound transformation. This research contributes by identifying gaps in the engagement with deep system intervention places and offering insights into how partnerships can improve their focus on systems transformations. Enhancing the understanding of intervention points is the first step for MSPs to increase their transformative potential, competence, and impact.